Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

A very interesting story of finding love in unexpected places and circumstances. It is not just about love but also trying to see what life has in store for us. Sometimes your life goals and ambitions are right in front of you, but somehow it is still far. This is when an angel of sorts come in to your life and things are not the same. WIth just 6 episodes each of 25-30 min duration, the best thing about the show is that it never overextends its welcome. Hayakawa is a student who lives in this dazy lost, emotionally shut down place. He lets girls have sex with me totally emotionless , pretends to behaving greta time with friends but something dark deep is bothering him. He hums music and likes to sing but anytime anyone mentions about singing , he completely shuts it off. He sometimes goes to school roof to be alone with his thoughts and music. His pain is hidden behind masked smiles and soft teasing. One such day he meets Konno, a school student and a photographer. Their platonic frie...

Delta (Denmark) Julie visits her father Nicolas after her parents' divorce, to meet Nicolas' much younger boyfriend, Christian and talk about something personal stuff. Christian tries to use her visit to resolve a fight with Nicolas in his favor and manipulate the situation. Father mows better that he is being used as a sugar daddy but is extremely fearful of Christian leaving him left alone by himself. Skin To Skin (Ireland) An experimental documentary exploring the beautifully messy relationship between intimacy and LGBTQ+ hook-up culture. In bedrooms and on couches. Late at night and in the early hours of the morning. Strangers, acquaintances and casual flings open up to each other - revealing some of the most private, occasionally uplifting, sometimes shameful parts of themselves in the fleeting intimacy after a sexual encounter.  Brothers (France) Damien and Francois are a gay couple but their friends somehow find it hard to believe that they are a couple or they dont look...

This beautiful film started off really well and I was quite into it, but somehow the second half felt quite disconnected, almost as if two different film makers had made the film. An honest depiction of teenage sexuality, the film is about coming out story of a 17-year old, overcoming bullying and a hate crime to find happiness and self-acceptance. The film doesn't specify the time period, but lack of phones and chat style on computer suggest that this was likely set in the 90s when the times were very different. Leo, a handsome Greek-Italian teenager lives with his parents and younger brother. His best mate is Boof and they are quite close doing all silly things together. Leo is sort of rushed into dating Monique, a girl from the class who really likes him and whose best friend is also Boof's girlfriend. But Leo can’t stop himself from stealing glances at red-headed Tom, a buddy of his younger brother. At a house party, when Leo is unable to have sex with Mo, he just goes out ...

This series is a classic case of likely the makers realizing that sex sells even in BL stories. Enough of this high school love and romance, we need to throw in more kisses and lot of hot bodies and sex and we will have a winner on our hands. Honestly this is what I feel the conversation must have gone when this show was being greenlit. 12 episodes of 50-60 minutes each, the story just keeps going in circles for no reason at all. I am honestly baffled at why these Thai film makers still insist on longer duration of episodes. Almost 80% of the narrative includes unhindered & unapologetic sex scenes between the main leads. I’m yet to find an episode where they weren’t kissing or having a full-blown sex session. Let's try to summarize the story if I can. Show starts with this guy Sorn jerking off in a public place. A younger boy Jun is watching him and Sorn watches him. But he then says that "hey I see you are hard, let me teach you and kiss you " and the young boy gives...

OMG! This was such an unexpectedly beautiful and emotional film. It tells the story of a man who adopts a baby with Down's syndrome and navigates the challenges of parenthood while surrounded by the people he loves. And in the end when we see photographs of the real man and his daughter, it is bound to bring a smile on your face and leave you with wet eyes. Based on the true story of Luca, who was the first case in Italy of a single, gay person succeeding in adopting a daughter. By refusing to give up, he has helped to smooth the way for other single and LGBTQ parents. The film begins with a woman giving birth to a child and leaves her when she hears the baby has Down's syndrome. A kind nurse gives her the name Alba. When Luca, founder of a home for children and adults with developmental disabilities, finds out about Alba in 2017, he applies to serve as her foster parent, a two-year commitment. A former seminary student, he has the requisite experience, but the rules favor coup...

This series is the Japanese remake of Thai series of the same name. I wasn't sure of what to think of this remake, but as I started watching it, the memories of original Thai show kept coming. The premise and everything is same but with the Japanese flavor. The show has 8 episodes plus 2 special episodes and each varies between 24-30 minutes of run time. I am so glad that they reduced the runtime of this show drastically compared to the original Thai version (maybe something that Thai shows need to learn). The series follows the chaotic, steamy romantic lives of architecture students Rei and his best friend Kai, both architecture students. The show doesn't run them parallels, rather divides 4 episodes each to focus on their love life. Rei's meeting with his college alumni Arashi doesn't start on a good note. Arashi likes cars and bikes and works in a mechanic shop but also participates in illegal races. Although starting on the wrong foot, their romance eventually grows...

There is a scene in this film where the film maker takes his script to show to a producer (?) and he remarks saying, 'I don't understand what this film is about' and that is exactly what I felt having watching the film. I just wasn't sure what the film is about. Online reviews call it a self-reflective fiction that muses on what we find comic about the human condition, and what can reduce us to tears. Made for festival circuits and arthouse cinema, there was absolutely nothing that I liked about this film. Joseph is a gay man and a film maker who has a 3 year old son Pino with his best friend Sonya. He broke up with his boyfriend more than 3 years ago and is now planing to make a passionate comedy film. Sonya returned prematurely from the clinic dealing with depression and she needs to go back there. His meetings with the producer who keeps asking for what he wants to make next creating another weird scenario especially when producer chews dog treats and gives it to t...

I am not much of a standup comedy viewer. I might have seen a few clips/reels here and there but watching a whole TV special is something, so I apologize of I dodged not know anything about Jerrod Carmichael. I went into this comedy special, blank, hoping to just enjoy it with no baggage of either the person or his previous work. In this latest HBO comedy special, he talks about the most intricate details of his life, his long-time boyfriend Michael and his current relationship with his family – to hilarious effect. Witty, brash, and funny, he reconciles that how much the fear of being outed made him forget about the one other thing that affects his everyday life: racism.  The show starts with his struggles with internalized homophobia and rampant infidelity. He talks about online trolling for having a white boyfriend and how maybe he has something against black folks. He also admits rather sheepishly that he still seeks the approval of Black people, which likely has to do with his...

I wouldn't call this series as a typical BL. This was actually a classic gang/revenge story between 2-3 underworld clans and just bit of romance thrown between the lead guy and the other boy. It was never developed, was never the focus. With 12 episodes each of about 55 minutes, I went into the show hoping for a gay love story, but I was disappointed. Having said that, if you watch the show for the grit and novel story that it says, it is actually quite good. But it's all about managing your expectations. Even this poster is soooo misleading. The plot centers on a young man named Sun, who is the son of a benevolent gang leader. After his father and best friend, Kong, are tragically murdered, Sun is wrongly accused and sent to prison. Once he is released, he works to expand his power and uncover the truth behind the deaths of his loved ones, his life becomes intertwined with Peach, a sensitive Korean artist. Unbeknownst to Sun, Peach is the son of the rival Korean gang leader, M...

Plainclothes is a gripping film that effectively captures the tension of 1990s gay identity and the struggles of remaining in the closet. The film's electric tension utilizes grainy VHS style narration at multiple places probably trying for the audience to visualize the fear and anxiety that our protagonist is going through. Set in Syracuse in 90's the film is told from the perspective of an undercover cop. Lucas is a closeted gay cop assigned to special task force in the local mall to its bathroom, a known gay pick-up spot. The special police unit entrap the gays and arrest them for violation of the sex code and given Lucas' youthful and good looks , his job is to to find such folks, trap them and then his partner would arrest the guy. His family has a loving mother, a sick father and Uncle Paul. He recently broke off with his girlfriend, who is th only person he confided in the fact that he actually maybe attracted to guys. What happens though is that Lucas ends up fallin...

Tadaima, Okaeri, translated to "Welcome Home" follows the home life of house husbands Masaki and  Hiromu, as they raise their children together and the series is delightfully gay. I have learnt new concept having seen this about Omegaverse. It is a fictional world where people have different reproductive and sexual biology. Alphas are those who impregnate others and cannot give birth, Omegas are those who can bear children, even if they look otherwise male. Betas are basically normal humans. The main prejudice in Omegaverse stories is against Omegas, where they suffer discrimination, violence, or sexual violence due to their type. This specific series was 12 episodes each of 24 minutes. Masaki is an Omega who married an Alpha named Hiromu. They now raise their young children together, with Masaki as the househusband and Hiromu as the breadwinner. They start with one son named Hikari. The series is about everyday stuff of them raising their kid with many other people showing u...

This interesting piece of documentary is essentially the history of the queer movement in Canada seen through an assembly of parades, marches and protests. Through rarely seen archival footage and first-person accounts, Parade brings to life pivotal moments that sparked Canada's 2SLGBTQ+ movement, honoring the activists and elders whose resistance led to the rights we have today. It opens with Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s famous statement about the government having no right in the bedrooms of the nation, preceding the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1969. The film looks at the early Gay Liberation Movement, including the We Demand Rally that took place in Ottawa in 1971. From here, Parade takes us through infamous events such Toronto’s bathhouse raids, and protests in response to how the government was handling the AIDS epidemic. The film finally touches on the BLM activists who controversially shut down Toronto Pride in 2016 to protest the presence of uniformed p...

Full marks for novelty to set a BL romance in a Thai prison. This gritty environment allows the series to explore meaningful themes. Sadly the screenplay and the execution is so jarring and random and sudden that half the time it doesn't make any sense. Apparently this was released as a 20 episode series , but the version I saw was 5 episodes where first 4 were 30-40 minutes each and the last one was 80 minutes. Jed owes a lot of money to people (we are later told he borrowed money for making a film), so he gets arrested. Even though he spends just one night in jail, it's his first time in such an environment. He's crammed into a tiny cell with numerous other inmates. Bible, a young prisoner on volunteer duty, is tasked with guiding new inmates. He somehow takes a liking for Jed and protects that first night from getting bullied. Jed gets bail next morning and Bible asks him to never come back again. Three months later his cheque fraud eventually lands him in a longer priso...

Never Fair (Korean Mini-Series) - 2025 A guy moves in with his childhood friend in Seoul who is a writer. They haven't met for 15 years now and new guy is looking for a job. The writer is in love with this. Guy but has no courage to confess. When the new guy gets a job in a cafe, his managers love and care and affection to the new guy causes our writer to get very jealous. He will now need to find ways to keep his love close to him and even confess his love. 4 part, total of 45 min mini-series. You Made My Day (Thai Mini-Series) - 2024 A 5-part, 50 min total long ad for Minzz inhaler and a good tourist promotion for Bangkok. Bom an dTar are two friends who are exploring Bangkok. They face few problems but always seem to keep it cool when using this product; solves your problems. Cute leads. No BL, just bromance and a super lengthy advertisement with two very cute leads (could go easy on the lipstick though). Y Journey: Stay Like a Local (Thai Mini-Series) - 2023 6 episode, 8-9 min ...